Antipope Nicholas V - Life

Life

Rainalducci was born at Corvaro, an ancient stronghold near Rieti in Lazio. He joined the Franciscan order after separating from his wife in 1310, and became famous as a preacher.

He was elected through the influence of the excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor, Louis the Bavarian, by an assembly of priests and laymen, and consecrated at Old St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, on 12 May 1328 by the bishop of Venice.

After spending four months in Rome, he withdrew with Louis IV to Viterbo, but in December 1328 the papal legate Cardinal Orsini began a campaign against Viterbo and Corneto. Nicholas moved on to Grosseto and then to Pisa, where he was guarded by the imperial vicar. On 19 February 1329 Nicholas V presided at a bizarre ceremony in the Duomo of Pisa, at which a straw puppet representing Pope John XXII and dressed in pontifical robes was formally condemned, degraded, and handed over to the secular arm (to be "executed").

Nicholas V was excommunicated by John XXII in April 1329, and sought refuge with Count Boniface of Donoratico near Piombino. Having obtained assurance of pardon, he presented a confession of his sins first to the archbishop of Pisa, and then at Avignon on 25 August 1330 to John XXII, who absolved him.

He remained in honourable imprisonment in the papal palace, Avignon until his death in October 1333.

Read more about this topic:  Antipope Nicholas V

Famous quotes containing the word life:

    The best thing in life is doing things people say you can’t do.
    Jennifer Moore (b. 1972)

    One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    I have heard that whoever loves is in no condition old. I have heard that whenever the name of man is spoken, the doctrine of immortality is announced; it cleaves to his constitution. The mode of it baffles our wit, and no whisper comes to us from the other side. But the inference from the working of intellect, hiving knowledge, hiving skill,—at the end of life just ready to be born,—affirms the inspirations of affection and of the moral sentiment.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)